


Three Fools in Fodlan

by Penguinocean



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route Spoilers, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route Spoilers, Persona 3 Spoilers, Persona 4 Spoilers, Persona 5 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:28:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29266515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penguinocean/pseuds/Penguinocean
Summary: Waking up in a new world was something new to Minato, Yu, and Ren. Fighting to save the world from destruction was not. But when the world is shrouded in wishes for death, lies, and control, how can they help the next leaders of the world grow and develop to overcome these challenges.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 49





	1. Decisive Meeting

Walking through the town, littered with the corpses of thieves three men talk about the events that just transpired. “How is it easier to fight human beings than to fight mindless shadows?” The boy with unfurled black hair asked. They had just protected a town from a bandit raid and were walking back towards the center.

“Well, Ren, technically shadows came from humans, so it does make sense.” A silver haired man teased. To any outsiders the three had nothing in common. But they shared a bond unlike any other.

“Shut up, Yu! I don’t need your technicalities.” Ren turned to three boys in the group. “Right, Minato?” He just shrugged his shoulders and grumbled.

“Of all the things I don't wake up with my headphones don’t.” He sighed, listening to the other two bicker. Derailing their argument, Minato brought something more important to their attention, “Guys, care to look at each other a bit more carefully.” They looked at each other, then themselves with their months opened. “You just noticed?”

“Well, yeah. We kind of woke up and were fighting within 15 minutes. The first thing I noticed wouldn’t be ‘Huh, I feel like a high schooler again.’” Ren mocked.

Looking back on the fight, Yu noticed something else, “We were also fighting with our persona’s weapons barre, Ren. I was fighting with Izangi’s spear and Minato was fighting with Thanatos’s katana.” Looking to where the weapons were stored, Ren noticed he was right.

“I thought that when we woke up, we would get more answers. Not more questions.” Ren complained. “Why can’t our lives ever be easy?”

**_“That would be because you three are Fools. Life is never easy for Fools.”_ ** A demonic voice within Ren answered.

“Thanks, Arsene. I just wan-” Ren quickly cut himself off. Arsene?

**_“Yes, Trickster, it is I. I am your other half where you go, I also go.”_ ** Well that is good to know.

“Can either of you communicate with your persona’s?” Ren asked. After a few moments of them being deep in thought, they nodded.

Reaching the center of town cut their conversation short, with people offering their praise. The leader of the town then walked over to the trio. “How can we ever thank you for protecting our village? We enlisted the Knights of Serios’s help, but the bandits attacked early then we expected. Please have some gold for your troubles.” There was a chest of gold behind the man, but the three boys looked at each other. The language they spoke also sounded like old English, if Ren had to put a guess on it. Luckfully all three of them were mostly fluent in english after many missions in english speaking countries.

“We don’t need a reward. Sometimes people just like to do things out of their hearts.” The leader looked at them mouth agape.

“Well, I am going to give you all something. You don’t need to pay your fee for the inn and we can get your stuff for you.” Inn? I guess that Igor made up a past for us as well, Ren thought. Ren moved to wipe the sweat off of his brow, but when he did the world slowed down and turned a red hue.

Reading his thoughts Arsene answered,  **_“Your Third Eye is tied to your metaverse abilities. Since you can easily manifest in this world, Third Eye can activate easily, but in this world your eyes will shine red.”_ ** It was weird seeing everything slowed down again for Ren. But he quickly went out of it, remembering the red eyes. 

When Ren’s vision returned to normal, he heard the sound of a bow go off. Locking in on the area it came from, he hurled Paradise Lost towards the sound. The knife got stuck in the side of a building and from behind it he heard an “eep.” Spinning the knife around his finger, he heard footsteps. He went into a battle stance and turned around to see eight people around him.

“Stand down, bandit. We have you outmatched eight to one.” A girl with snow, white hair, lilac eyes, and a red cape told him. They were starting to surround Ren, but he heard people running towards him.

“Bandits? I think you got the wrong guy, besides one against eight, those are some of the best odds I’ve had in a fight.” Ren smirk. From looking at their formation, he could tell there was not a lot of trust between them. He saw them exchanging uneasy glances with each other, to see what the others would do.

“Well, if you're not a bandit, Where are they? After all it is a noble’s duty to protect commoners.” An orange haired man smiled. Ren groaned at the man that just spoke. He was arrogant and seemingly treated battle like a game.

Before Ren could answer, his teammates caught up. They had heard the end of what was being asked and pointed. “Are you talking about those bandits?” They followed Minato and Yu’s fingers to the carnage behind them. There were easily a hundred bandits that they took out early, and Ren took pride in watching their jaws drop.

“Well now I see what you mean by eight against one are some of the best odds you had.” A green haired boy grimaced. He quickly turned away from the sight of the bodies.

An energetic, teal-haired boy looked over at them with excitement, “Can you guys teach me how to do that. Fight tons of bandits by yourself.” He was bouncing with excitement, but he was not the only one that wanted to learn

“I would also like to be learning… umm, to learn how to fight lots of people.” A girl with a mark on her face asked.

Ren contemplated his answer for a second, before answering, “We don’t do it by ourselves. We do it as a team, but we each go off on our own because we trust each other with our lives.” He got some shocked looks from the group he was in front of.

“Are you saying that we don’t trust each other?” A girl with a hat asked. While she was surprised it seemed like the girl with lilac eyes, thought the same thing.

“You don’t, or at least not yet.” Minato said. Seeing everybody stare at him he continued. “Whether conscious or unconscious, you don’t fully trust each other. While you surrounded Ren, you all glanced at each other, seeing who would make the first move. That hesitation would get you killed in a real battle. It is something common among people that have just met.”

A girl near the back moved to the front to address Minato, “You would be correct in your assumptions. This group of kids have been working together for about a month. You are surprisingly insightful for just seeing them in battle for a few seconds.” It was obvious to Ren that she was the leader of the group of kids. She had an aura of authority that caused people to listen to her. Whether to be her lack of emotions or something, that was a different question.

“We all have that insight. I know that I saw, Minato saw it, and I’m sure that Ren saw it too. While we all look young, each of us has led our own group of inexperienced friends before, so we can see the signs.” Yu commented. Dorothea immediately started to swoon over how handsome Yu looked, but he did not hear it.

The leader of the group went behind the build, presumably to comfort the archer that Ren threw the knife. The lilac eyed girl then stepped forward, “I have a request to make of you all. I am Edelgard von Hresvelg, heir to the Adrestian Empire. I would like for you three to join the Empire and offer your leadership and swordsmanship to the Empire. Of course you would be compensated for your actions.” That was an interesting demand, but not one that Ren was interested in. He turned to see Minato’s blank stare and Yu deep in thought.

Seeing them look back at him, Ren answered, “Sorry, but we’ll have to decline your offer. We would prefer to keep our futures open to any possibilities.” It was a good enough reason to cover for the real reason.

Disheartened, Edelgard says, “That is… most unfortunate. Just know that if you ever need a place to go the Empire is open to you.” Just then the leader of the group comes back with a screaming girl, with unkempt hair.

“They all must hate me. Oh you're such a screw up Bernie. The bandits all probably got away because of your arrow.” She screamed. Ren almost wanted to face palm. But this sight reminded him too much of Futaba, for him to critique her.

“I heard the tail end of your conversion. If you have no place to be for the foreseeable future, why don’t you come with us to Garreg Mach Monastery. With your age you could probably enroll in the Officer’s Academy. I am Byleth Eisner, professor of the Black Eagles house. I could tip the scales in your favor, to enroll there.” She stuck out her hand for a handshake, but Ren hesitated.

Speaking up for Ren, Yu asked, “Who else will be there. Judging from your words there is more than one house. I’m Yu Narukami by the way.”

“There are three houses at the academy. The Golden Deer, Blue Lions, and Black Eagles. Each is led by a house leader. For the Golden Deer, it is Claude von Reigan, heir to the Leicester Alliance. The Blue Lions are led by Prince Dimitri of Faerghus. And as you’ve probably guessed by now, the Black Eagles are led by Edelgard.” Byleth answered. Highly suspicious, Ren thought.

**_“Indeed it is Trickster. Fate must have brought them all together. And we both know that where fate is, trouble follows.”_ ** Ren nodded his head in agreement with his other half.

Ren extended out his hand, “All right, I go. Name’s Ren Amamiya.” Yu and Minato looked at him in shock. Mouthing in the word ‘fate’ to both of them. Nodded their heads, both agreed to coming and Minato introduced himself.

Just then the leader of the town came back with the trio’s stuff. “You guys pack light. There was barely anything in your rooms, just some clothes and cards. Are you sure that you don’t want a reward for protecting the village?” He quizzically asked.

“Yes. We are sure that we don’t want a reward. Use it to fortify the town from future attacks or to protect your people.” Yu shouted out ideas.

With everything in tow, the group left the small village to travel back to the monastery. They walked through lush, green forests, with small paths cut through them. They had travelled for about half a day before taking a break for the night. They were told it was about another half-day's walk to reach the Monastery, but would take a break to eat.

Ren watched the Black Eagles set up camp for the night. Some set up the tents and others started some fires with magic. For Ren, it was weird to see how organized these people were after seeing them in a fight. But for now he had bigger priorities.  **_“The presence of magic in this world is higher. Right now, you should be able to summon basic spells without me.”_ ** Arsene spoke. Ren wondered if the other two were thinking the same.

Seeing the amount of food and knowing how much the three of them ate, Ren stood up to go hunting. Minato and Yu gave him silent acknowledgement, but apparently that would not fly with the rest of them. “Where are you going, Ren” Byleth inquired.

“Hunting.” Ren answered, “While the three of us look quite skinny all of us have high metabolisms and we all eat a lot.”

“It’s pitch black out! How will you be able to see anything? Not even Petra could hunt in these conditions.” Dorothea said in surprise.

Not missing a beat, Minato looked at Ren, “We call it his ‘Third Eye.’ He has near perfect vision and an uncanny ability to see in the dark, so he does all of our hunting.” Taking that as his cue to leave, Ren walked into the woods.

**_“You just wanted an excuse to try and use magic, didn’t you?_ ** ” Arsene snarky asked. Ren just smirked and thought back, ‘Yeah, but we did need more food.’ Arsene just laughed at the boy's appetite.

Activating his Third Eye, Ren saw some blue paw prints in the distance and followed those. Making his way through many clearings, he saw his prey in the distance. Sneaking around behind it, he summoned an electric shock from his hands and launched it towards the deer. The deer fell to the ground paralyzed as Ren walked up to end it.  **_“Well that went well.”_ ** Arsene commented. Ren just groaned at the comment his persona made.

When Ren made his way back to camp, everybody turned towards him with wide eyes. “You… You actually caught something in the dead of night.” Ren just smirked at the shock on everyone's faces.

Minato let out a quick laugh, “Told you so. Now then Ren, let’s cook that thing. Between the three of us we can eat all of it right.” He put the deer over the fire and started to let it cook, while answering questions.

“Seeing in the dark is an incredible useful ability, but it could also prove dangerous. If you try anything against Lady Edelgard, I’ll kill myself.” Her vassel, Hubert, threatened.

Ren just laughed it off, “I would prefer not to have an entire nation looking to kill me, so I don’t think you need to worry. I’ve had enough targets on my back in my life.” Having all of Japan trying to track you down was already tough. Trying to escape from an entire nation in an unknown world, yeah no thanks, Ren thought.

They all bonded with each other around the fire as they ate. There were some ice breaker questions thrown each way, but overall most of the questions were easy. Slowly one by one, everybody went to their separate tents, to rest for the night

The rest of the trip was largely silent. Neither of the two groups really comment on each other any further, either talking things over about their new lives, in the case of Minato, Yu, and Ren. Or building bonds between each other in the case of the Black Eagle’s house.

Ren noticed some things about the students on the way back. Petra was either new to the language, or it was not her first. Like his original assessment, Ferdinand was arrogant, but Ren now thought that it was him being naive. Caspar was an energetic ball of energy, while Linhardt could barely stay awake. Bernadetta was shy and had the signs that she was a shut in and did not want to interact with anyone. Dorothea was charismatic and outgoing, but Ren thought that it was a front to hide her disdain for nobles.

Edelgard and Hubert were different stories. Hubert followed Edelgard like he was her shadow. It was rare for them to see them apart from each other. Even asking the other students, they all said they were never too far apart. But more importantly, Edelgard seemed to distance herself from everyone. Ren had no idea why, but it seemed that she upheld her mask for far too long for anybody to break.

All that was left was Byleth. She was stoic and unemotional, but had slight cues that showed her mood. She brought out the best in her students, but that was because she was easy to talk to. In Ren’s mind, you could tell him she was a number of things and he would believe it.The realization then hit him. She was like the number zero, full of infinite possibilities. She could become anything. She was most likely a fool.

He didn’t have time to bring it up to Minato and Yu for the path started to become more defined and the woods started to clear up. That was until it was a forest no more and in the distance, they saw it. Even from a distance, it was a gigantic structure. “There it is Garreg Mach Monastery.”

  
  
  



	2. An Afternoon of Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arriving at Garreg Mach Monastery, the Persona trio are left to their own devices and explore the area. Running into many students of the Academy, they learn more about them. After their long day of adventure, they are informed to go to the audience hall to speak with the Archbishop, who had a vision from the Goddess showing them and are asked to join the Academy.

Making it into the monastery proper in the early afternoon, the Black Eagles broke off to do their own things. Ren, Minato, and Yu stood there trying to figure out the best way to go about the monastery. With nobody to guide them, they were forced to ask the gatekeeper for a map of the monastery. It took a bit for them to get one, for not many people asked for one.

After some light discussion about where to go, they eventually left for the pond and the greenhouse. Minato wanted to argue with them, but he did not share the same sense of love for fishing and gardening. It wasn’t a long walk to the pond, but all of the students they passed talked about rumors about them.

Walking past the pond showed the abundance of fish in it, which was impressive, but for neither of them wanted to fish. Walking into the greenhouse was different, though. There were three people in there. The keeper of the greenhouse, as shown by her church clothing, which had dirt on it. A boy with silver hair, freckles, and green eyes, who was taking care of the plants with care. Instructing him was a tall man, with darker skin, and white hair.

Walking up to them they caught the tall end of an instruction, “... dry land, so the flowers don’t need a lot of water to grow.” The smaller boy gave each flower a bit of water and then moved onto the next. “Are you here to admire the flowers?” The tall man asked without turning around.

Minato didn’t care about the process of growing flowers, just the product, so he let Yu and Ren answer. “We are. I had a garden once and I grew to love it, so I have an appreciation for all nature.” The smaller boy shot up immediately, causing Minato to snicker. The other boy just calmly turned around to face them.

“Wh-Who are you?” The younger boy asked, still scared. “I don’t think that I have seen you before.” He stopped himself to recompose, but during that time he analyzed them. “Wait, blue, black, and silver hair? Are you the people from the rumors?” They had heard about the rumors, but no specifics, which obviously scared Ren.

“What are the rumors saying about us?” Ren groaned. Minato knew how rumors had ruined his life and just walked up and patted his back.

“Nothing bad, I assure you.” Minato could feel Ren’s posture relax. “They are just saying how you protected a village without prompting and chose not to accept a reward. It says that three kids with blue, silver, and black hair were found walking out of an area with about a hundred bandits, with barely a scratch.” Minato watched as his eyes glazed over them deep within his thoughts. Quickly snapping out of them, “I’m Ashe by the way and this is Dedue.”

All the man said was “hello” before going back to watching them. Minato noticed that he was not very talkative and was fine with it, the less people he interacted with the better, for now at least.

“I’m Minato, that’s Yu, and this troublemaker is Ren.” He said pointing to each of them. Ren shot him a small glare, which just evoked a smirk out of Minato. But before the conversation could continue, they heard bells ringing.

“I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have to go to the archer seminar. See you.” With that Ashe bolted out of the door and ran down the path. Deduce stood up slowly and checked on the plants before making his way out, as well.

Following them, the trio walked out of the greenhouse unsure of where to go until all of their stomach started to growl. Once at the mess hall, they got their food, which looked to be a chicken dish. They all said their thanks and began to devour the food. They started to turn people’s heads as they inhaled all of the food on the plant.

Eventually a red-haired boy and a blonde girl made their way over to them. “You guys inhaled that food. That was even faster than when Ingrid eats.” The red haired boy teased. The comment earned him an elbow to the stomach.

“Excuse him.” The girl said sternly. “I’m Ingrid Blandl Galatea and this buffoon here is Sylvain.” Great first impressions Minato thought.

Recovering from getting elbowed, Sylvain asked, “Are you the people from the rumors? I mean you fit the descriptions.” Minato was starting to see why Ren didn’t like rumors that much, even good ones.

“We are the people from the rumors. That is if we are speaking of the same one.” Minato confirmed. Ingrid’s face lit up at the information.

“Thank you so much.” She praised. Minato looked between his companions, wondering why this girl was thanking them. “The town you saved was in part of my region. We are very poor and most people have trouble feeding themselves. Most towns don’t have the funds to hire mercenaries or knights to protect them, so they often get raided.”

“We were doing the right thing in the situation. It was all in a hard day's work for us, right?” Ren replied. Both Minato and Yu nodded with what Ren was saying.

“You guys would make the perfect knights. You’re chivalrous and honorable, the most important qualities in a knight.” All of the boys at the table shot questioning looks at each other.

“Being a knight doesn’t mean to be chivalrous and honorable. And just because we did something good doesn’t mean we did it in a good way. Rebellions could be for all the right reasons, but that doesn’t mean they are good.” Ren broke it to her. She went through many emotions in the span of a few seconds, but eventually ended with anger.

“No, a perfect knight has to be chivalrous and honorable! If they are not then they don’t deserve to be a knight at all!” She yelled, before running off. Minato just gave Sylvain a look that said ‘What the hell did I just witness?’ Sylvain simply shrugged his shoulders before running off after Ingrid

“Well that was certainly something.” Yu commented. Minato just nodded and Ren shook his head. “She handled that comment very poorly for how well put together she looks.”

“I didn’t mean to make her that angry. I was just stating the facts about the world. Clearly she thinks that knighthood is some fairytale, that always has a happy ending.” Ren frowned. Minato was about to cheer him up saying that reality would hit her eventually and that it was better this way, but two others sat down first.

One of the kids that walked up was big and had blonde hair. “That was some argument, but the best way to get back in a good mode is to train or eat more. Name’s Raphael and this here is Ignatz.” Ignatz managed to get a weak hello in before starting to eat. “We’re both here training to be knights.”

“Why do you want to be knights?” Yu questioned. It wasn’t that it was a bad thing to do, but there was a great risk in doing so.

“I want to become a knight to protect my little sister and grandmother. My sister is going to take over our merchant business, so I am going to protect them.” Raphael answered. Minato heard the complete ecstasy in his voice at becoming a knight.

“My parents want me to become a knight, since my brother is taking over the merchant business.” Ignatz responded. He didn’t share the same enthusiasm as Raphael, but he was doing it to please his parents.

“If your parents want you to become a knight, what do you honestly want to do?” Minato asked.

Ignatz’s eyes looked around trying to find a way out of the situation. “Just don’t laugh, please. I, um, well, I um want to become an artist.” Ignatz looked back up at the three, seeing nothing but serious faces.

“Being an artist is nothing I would laugh at. I know how much work goes into making a painting, so I would never laugh at it. One of my closest friends is an artist and I helped him with many paintings.” Ren broke the silence. Hearing the admission from Ren, Ignatz's eyes were shining.

“Th-thank you, Ren, was it? We overheard your conversation with Ingrid and Sylvain.” Ignatz started to turn and leave before turning back, “And don’t worry about Ingrid. She has snapped at about everyone for something like what you did.” He continued walking with Raphael quickly behind him. 

Wandering around without the help of the map for a bit, they ended up at the stables. None of them have ever interacted with horses, only cats and dogs. They had no idea how to do anything with the horses, but it was still important to know where everything was.

Exploring the stables, they ran into two girls doing stable work. One had light blue hair and was calmly taking care of the horses, with gentle brushes. The other girl with pink hair was complaining about having to do manual labor and pushing most of it onto the other girl.

“Ugh! Marianne can you help me with this horse too. I’m afraid that they will get hurt if I do it. You are better-” The pink haired girl suddenly stops when turning her head over to see the three boys watching them. “Or would you three like to help me out.”

The blue haired girl, Marianne, finished brushing her horse’s mane before walking over to the pink haired girl. Following her line of sight, she also saw the three boys. “Oh, um, I-I don’t think that I have seen you before. D-do you want to help with the horses?” She asked nervously.

“No thanks. As much as I would want to my friends and I are killing time.” Minato said. He did not want to try and care for horses, right now.

Squinting her eyes at the boys, Hilda noticed something. “Wait, are you the three from the rumor?”

“Hilda, it’s rude to ask people about that.” Marianne reprimanded.

“We are indeed the people from the rumors.” Yu stated. “I’m Yu, that’s Ren, and over there is Minato.”

“I’m Hilda Valentine Goneril. There are talks about you joining the Officer’s Academy. If you do, you will definitely see more of me. Come on, Marianne, introduce yourself.”

“R-right. I-I’m Marianne Von Edmund.” She quickly turned away and went back to caring for the horse. Realizing that she did not want to be bothered any more, the boys said their goodbyes and left.

They wanted to go to the training hall, but chose the wrong route to get there. Walking through the classroom area, many times they were stopped by people asking about the rumors. Eventually they had a crowd form around them.

Classes were also just getting out, so even more people were in the crowd, trying to talk to them. Realizing the commotion outside of their classrooms, the teachers walked out to break up the crowd. The crowd cleared up leaving behind a few students that were still curious about them.

One of the more persistent students was one with a terrible haircut and how it was his noble rights that they speak to him. They tried to ignore him and talk to the other students, but he would follow them around. Around the time they were starting to get fed up with him somebody called him out. “Lorenz, would you stop following them around like you’re a lost puppy.” A girl commanded.

“I was not following them around like a lost puppy, Leonie. I was trying to gather information as to why they are so popular. It is my noble right to have access to that information.” Lorenz responded. All three boys rolled their eyes at his statement. Minato knew that none of them were going to get along with him.

“You really don’t pay attention to your surroundings do you. There have been rumors about these three going around all day.” Leonie bluntly stated

“What rumors?” Lorenz questioned.

“Maybe if you opened your ears to commoners every so often you would know. But seeing you three here I am impressed at your accomplishment. I expected you to be older. Still Captain Jeralt could do better than you by himself. And one day I will prove that to him.” She mumbled the last part. “I also heard that you did not take any reward for your actions. Why?”

Minato shrugged his shoulders, “We didn’t need what they were offering us, so it would be better in their hands.” Lorenz looked like his head was going to explode at that comment.

“But saving commoners and getting a reward is part of being a noble.” Lorenz’s head was getting red from his growing anger.

“Good thing we aren’t nobles then.” Ren smirked. And that was the boiling point for Lorenz. He stalked off, red with anger from their comments.

“Don’t worry about him. He is always like that.” Leonie stated. “Where are you guys going next?”

“We are going to the training hall. We are just getting a feel for the place.” Yu answered.

“Cool. I would love to join you guys walking over, but I have to do some chores. See you guys later.” Leonie finished, walking off towards the mess hall.

“ _ Everyone here is pretty interesting. They come from all walks of life and try to learn together. _ ” Yu started. They were walking along the path towards the training hall.

“ _ It truly is. But I think that if our teams can coexist peacefully, anyone can. _ ” Ren commented. He was going to continue talking, but a girl ran into him, causing both of them to fall.

Getting back up the girl apologized profusely. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I ran into you. Please don’t hate me.” Ren was still reeling in from the apology, when another girl showed up.

“Annie you must watch where you are going. I might be an airhead, but I don’t trip over people.” A girl with pale hair said in a motherly tone.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. After all, this isn’t the worst fall I’ve taken.” Ren grumbled at the last part.

“Ok. I haven’t seen you around before. I am Annette and this is my best friend Mercedes.” Her sudden change from somber to cheerful caught Minato off guard. “Who are you?” She then asked.

“I think that they are demons.” Merceds interjected.

“D-d-demons?” Annette tried hiding behind Mercedes, but quickly realized she was joking when she started laughing. “Mercie, that wasn’t funny!” Annette pouted.

“I’m Ren, that’s Minato, and Yu. And that was a pretty funny reaction.” Ren smirked, joining the teasing. Annette continued to pout, but Mercedes was quick to break her out of it.

“Do you want to bake, Annie?” She asked. Annette’s face instantly lit up and nodded. “Well then. We will see you boys later.” She walked away, but not without teasing Annette. The trio shook their heads remembering doing that to their teammates.

The walk to the training hall was short and none of them talked on the way. Walking in, they heard the sounds of a spar. It was between a boy with indigo hair, that was tied in a bun, and Byleth.

Watching the spar gave Minato the impression that Byleth was superior, and by a large extent. She was always on the offensive and when she wasn’t she quickly parried a blow which put her back on the offensive. She looked at the big picture of a battle trying to find an end quickly, but something small could throw her off her game Minato noticed. Looking at the other two, they were also deep in thought about the fight. The sound of a sword hitting the ground brought them out of their thoughts.

“It was a nice try Felix, but you need to remember that dodging blows will just lead to you getting tired faster. You need to block them sometimes.” Byleth suggested. The boy, Felix, just scoffed at her and started to walk off. Another boy appeared, asking to spar Byleth. “Sure, Dimitri, just give me a few minutes to rest.” Dimitri nodded and got a training lance off the wall.

He started to take a few practice swings before Minato spoke up. “Your form is off. You are swinging your lance like a sword. Lances need to go for precise strikes because their weight and range would leave you open to attacks.” Minato suggested. Teaching Ken to wield a lance was rough, but he learned the basics on how to use one as well.

Obviously scared by the new voice, Dimitri’s grip on the lance tightened before he turned around. “Oh, um, thank you for the tip, but who are you? I haven’t seen you around before.” He goes back to warming up before Byleth walks up.

“They are the boys from the rumors. Minato is the one with blue hair, Yu with silver, and Ren with black hair.” She then walks over to the three boys. “Lady Rhea wants to see you three later, so when you can make your way to the audience chamber.”

“Got it.” They respond. Felix comes back from the corner with a training dummy and his practice sword and starts to swing at it.

“You know how to fight with lances? When you were fighting I thought that you used a katana.” Byleth questioned. The last part caught Felix’s attention as he was now looking at them.

“One of younger friends used a lance as a weapon and since he was young he needed help. So I learned with him and that led to me being able to wield one.” Minato responded. What he didn’t mention is that a one-handed sword was still his best, but Thanatos allowed his skills with a katana to be admirable.

“How old were you when you taught him? I have been trying to master using lances for ten years, but I fear that I don’t have mastery of it yet.” Dimitri asked.

“I helped him learn when I was sixteen and I am nineteen now.” Minato replied. It was at that moment that Felix decided to walk over.

“I want one of you to spar me. I have heard the rumors and if they are true you can help me get stronger.” Felix demanded.

“Sorry, but we don’t have our weapons on us.” Yu responded. It was technically true, but they could summon their weapons at will.

“Tch. Well then you are useless to me right now. I am curious if any of you could take down the Professor though.” Felix wondered. Byleth and Dimitri had both tilted their heads waiting for an answer.

“I think that I could. I have done a lot in my life and I have rarely lost, so I like my odds.” Ren’s overconfidence got on Felix’s nerves.

“Well hopefully she wins and knocks that ego out of your head. And boar don’t injure the professor, I want to spar her again later.” With that Felix stormed out of the training area, leaving everybody surprised.

Dimitri let out a sigh, “I’m sorry about him. He wasn’t always like that, but sometimes he is too blunt for his own good.” Minato noticed that the boar comment didn’t shake him. “Anyways, Professor, are you ready?”

“I am. You guys can stay and watch if you want.” Byleth said. It would be tempting to try to see how much they could help Dimirti, but they also needed to see Lady Rhea, whoever that was. They politely declined the invitation to watch the spar and made their way to find the audience chamber.

Making their way to the audience chamber, they heard shouting behind the door, so they decided to pass it for now. The only place that they hadn’t been at that point was the library, which was just around the corner.

“ _ Do you think that this is the place that we need to be? There are a lot of important people here that could help us. _ ” Ren asked. Minato thought for a second. Igor had told them that they would need to help the future leaders, but he was cryptic as ever.

“ _ I don’t know, Ren. It would be a good guess and if it isn’t we are in the center of Fodlan. _ ” Yu responded. Both of the points were very good, but they shouldn’t assume anything.

“ _ As we all know, time is an important factor. We can’t know unless we wait for a bit. _ ” Minato added. The others nodded their heads along, but the conversation ended when a boy with a yellow cape walked up.

“You guys might want to keep your voices down if you are using a foreign language. People here are not too fond of outsiders.” The boy suggested. The look on his face told Minato enough to believe him.

“Ok, we will be careful. Thanks for the warning.” Minato thanked him. His face then lightened up, including a smile that wasn’t quite right, but would get passed by many people.

“Lighten up a bit. Having serious looks on your face doesn't suit you well.” He teased. Not getting the reaction he wanted he continued, “I’m Claude von Reigan heir to the Leicester Alliance and you are the three from the rumors.” A quick nod confirmed his suspicions.

“Claude, could you please quiet down. Some of us are trying to do research or study.” A little girl asked. With the amount of books around her, Minato might have mistaken her for the librarian.

“Sorry, Lysithea, but sometimes you gotta talk to the new people to learn more.” Claude responded. Lysithea just gave a groan and walked over to the new people.

“Lysithea von Ordelia. And Claude, you are the one that has been here all day. At least I left to get some lunch.” Lysithea looked younger than most of the others, but he could also sense immense power coming from her.

“Sure you got lunch. If by lunch you mean that you got yourself a couple of pieces of cake, then sure you got lunch.” Claude teased. Lysithea’s face was one of pure rage as she punched Claude.

“Stop treating me like a child. And I’ll have you know that I only had one piece of cake.” She then stomped out of the library.

“It’s too easy to tease her, which is why I do it. But I’d best get back to learning because as they say information is power.” With that Claude went back to his seat, with many books circled around him. Having nothing else to do, they went back to the audience chamber.

When there the door was still closed, but the argument had stopped. Minato knocked on the door until somebody let them in and they saw two people in the center of the room. “Hello, young ones. I am Archbishop Rhea, and this is my advisor Seteth.” Seteth did a little greeting before letting the Archbishop continue. “I have heard of your accomplishments from the Professor and it is by the will of the Goddess that you are here. For that reason I would like you to attend the Officer’s Academy.” What. That was the only thing that went through Minato’s head at the moment.

“Why do you want us at the academy? You just met us and we could be dangerous to the monastery.” Ren asked. None of them would ever do anything like that without being provoked, but Ren was playing Devil’s Advocate. Minato largely agreed with the sentiment though.

“I had a vision from the Goddess that said there would be three boys, who have all been on harrowing journeys, who will help Fodlan develop.” Rhea explained. Minato wanted to laugh at the absurdity of her claims. A vision from the Goddess? That was a terrible reason, but he withheld himself from laughing.

“I agree with you Ren, and normally I would decline you joining us. But since this is the Goddess’s wishes, I will let you all have a chance to let you learn here. But just know that if you make one mistake, you will be thrown out. Understand?” All three of them nodded their heads.

“Very well then. You will need to pick your houses then. I have heard that you three have already met most of the students, so which house would you like to join?” Minato was not ready for the question, but he remembered seeing the darkness in Dimitri’s eyes. He was traumatized by something and it was a similar look that he once had.

“I’ll join the Blue Lions House.” He spoke up. Seeing that the other two had no objections, it was confirmed that he would join them. Ren chose the Black Eagles, which left Yu with the Golden Deer, but he had no complaints. They were dismissed and given their rooms. They unpacked their stuff and went to bed realizing that their first day was tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you once again for reading this chapter. Give me any feedback that you want and I will try to change it.  
> I view that their weapons come from their Personas, which means that they can materialize at any moment. And yes Igor did impersonate the Goddess for them to join the school.


	3. First Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Persona trio go on to have their first day of school. Only one of them gets challenge to a spar.

Standing outside of their respective classrooms, the persona trio looked at each other. They had all done this before, some more than others, but it didn’t change their fears. They had no idea how the schools in this world work and it was probably nothing like Japan. Minato sighed and shook his head before entering expecting the other two to also walk in.

The creaking of the door let the rest of the room know that he was entering, so walking in on eyes were on him. Minato saw some of them shiver, but assumed that it was the wind from the open door. The class all yelled “Minato?” at the same time. He walked up to the front of the class, finding space on the chalkboard and wrote Arisato.

“Arisato.” He stated. “Last name.” It was too early in the morning for him to be bothered by really speaking or paying attention to the class. Turning back to the students, he recognized most of them. He found an empty seat near the back, while the old man teaching the class calmed the class.

“I forgot to mention that we have a new student, but it seems that most of you know him already.” The professor sighed. He tried to calm the students down again, but there were too many questions being asked of him. From them, Minato figured out that his name was Professor Hanneman, but that was it. Sleep was beckoning him to it, but before he could rest his eyes, Hanneman had placed a test in front of him. “I have heard that you have a great aptitude for weapons, but I still need to see where you are.”

The test wasn’t hard. Most of the answers were pretty basic, but the thing that Minato noticed is that almost none would work in a battle. The questions are asking for picture perfect conditions, where everything is planned to a T. Walking up to his desk, he placed his test and a note.

“Minato, would you care to explain to me how this test does not represent real battle field conditions?” Hanneman questioned. Minato looked at him, sighed and went to the chalkboard.

At this point all eyes were on him. “Nobody would have the time to set up proper stances and formations in the chaos of battle.” He states bluntly. Even towards the end of his journey with S.E.E.S, they still had trouble coordinating after an ambush.

“I disagree. In battles muscle memory would take over, leading people to be more organized even in the case of an ambush.” Ingrid retorted. Minato assumed that she had never been in a real battle before, with her talks about honor and now this.

“Yet to survive a battle you need to be able to adapt to the new situations that arise.” Felix nodded his head with Minato. “To survive a battle you need to use everything you have. Throwing dust into the enemies eyes, or doing anything you can to win.” This caused a class wide discussion. Ingrid, Sylvain, and Ashe defended fighting with honor and that cheap tricks had no place in battle. Dimitri had admitted that cheap tricks could be used in war, but that he won’t. Felix and Minato stood by the fact that dirty tricks were often the only way to survive a war. Mercedes and Annette stayed out of the conversation as they had not grown up fighting.

Hannenman had to stop the discussion before it became too loud so that they didn’t disrupt the other classes. After quieting the class down, he continued to grade Minato’s test, but the expression on his face has grown more shocked with every question. “M-minato, just how old are you?” He asked with hesitation.

“I’m 17. Why?”

“How do you know so much about weapons? Most kids your age can barely grasp one. You, on the other hand, have a decent grasp on all of them.” The whole class was flabbergasted. A kid younger than most of them had decent proficiency in most weapons.

“The only weapon I can wield well is a sword. All of the others, I know how they work, but only in theory. Plus a sword is the only weapon I want to use.” Minato responded.

“Why only use a sword? If you can use many weapons you would never be at a disadvantage.” Dimitri questioned.

“I like challenges. Knowing that I can win at a disadvantage, allows me to go for bolder moves with more confidence.” Minato answered. In the background, Felix grunted in agreement. After that, questions towards Minato got met with blunt responses and gradually his eyes fell heavy and he eventually fell asleep.

Yu knew walking into the Golden Deer classroom, that there would be absolute chaos. He had looked at the roster and saw many conflicting personalities. But he thought that he could handle chaos after what he had been through. But knowing what chaos was and preparing for it were two different things as he found out.

But going into the Golden Deer classroom was a different type of chaos that Yu didn’t expect. It looked like a tornado had went through. Papers were all over the place, desks were tipped over, in all areas except one. All of the students were sitting around one table looking over a map. Yu silently walked over to the table to watch what was going on. What he missed was at the front of the classroom, was a teacher face down on the desk, obviously sleeping.

“... middle of the country, the closest territory being Gloucester.” Claude pointed at the map. It seemed that Claude was going over a bit of history of the Alliance.

“Fitting that the end of the war that started the Alliance happened in Gloucester. That is why I will eventually overtake your position, Claude. It is my noble right to lead this land afterall.” Lorenz declared. Yu hated that tone of voice that Lorenz used. They were classmates, not people going to war.

“Ah yes. Your nobleness helps you capture the top spot in the Alliance. I’m sure that everybody would love to have a rousing discussion about how nobility is the way, the truth, and light.” Claude teased. He got a light snicker out of some of the commoners and a laugh from some of the nobles. 

“This behavior is exactly why you will never make it as leader of the Alliance.” Lorenz said. Alright now it is time for me to step in, Yu thought.

“To be a good leader, sometimes you need to play your cards close to your chest. You never know who you can trust, with the lies that fog the truth.” Yu cut in. Everybody has secrets to keep and whether they get let out is that person’s problem.

Yu had learned a lot that year. Before that, he was ignorant to the world, letting his fate be decided for him. He always listened to what others told him. How he should live, rumors, classwork. But once he opened his eyes to the truths of the world, he decided to take fate in his own hands.

Everyone was silent at the new voice in the classroom. Marianne and Lysithea let out a small ‘eek’ at his voice. Everyone turned to see Yu’s presence in the room. “Well it looks like you’re our new classmate.” Claude notices, recovering from his surprise.

“I disagree with your claims, Yu. How can you be a leader if nobody can trust you?” Lorenz asked.

“Trust and not sharing secrets are two very different things. You can trust somebody without knowing their secrets.” Yu grimaced, thinking about Adachi. A man that he trusted for a long time.

Lorenz was about to form another retort before Leonie interrupted, “Lorenz, do you trust your father?” A quick nod indicated his answer. “He still keeps secrets from you though. By that logic you shouldn’t trust him either.” It was blunt and Yu would have tried to find a different way around, but it achieved the same purpose.

“It’s true that we all have secrets that we don’t want to share, or things that we can’t accept about our past.” Ignatz said, head down. Everyone seemed to have their head down thinking to themselves

Claude then broke the silence, “Enough of this pity party. Since Mauela’s out, one of us has to give a lecture on something. I vote that Yu should.” Yu sputtered in response, but everyone else voted for him as well. He went over different kinds of tactics to use in certain situations and the trust that was needed to perform them.

To say that Ren didn’t like school was an understatement. Ever since that year, he had just wanted to break away from school. The only reason he really tried to do well was to spite the people that spoke ill of him. Because if a delinquent could score better than you, that would be a massive blow to their ego. So going back to school was not at the top of his priority list, but fate just loved to fuck with him. All he could hope for was that here school was more entertaining.

Opening the door to the classroom, he silently made his way to an open seat near the back of the room. Nobody had noticed him getting into the seat and he was fine with it. That was until the sun lifted high enough that he was no longer in the shadows. As people saw Byleth stare, they all turned around and saw him. Most gasped at his presence, but Hubert looked anger at himself and Edelgard looked at him in hate. “How did you get into the classroom with nobody noticing?” Byleth asked.

“I used the shadows. I can blend into them making it nearly impossible to see me.” Ren answered honestly.

“But we also didn’t hear you. How did you make no sound?” Caspar wondered.

“I opened the door when the Professor started speaking and hugged the shadows to get to my seat.” Ren explained.

“You move as if you are hunting prey. You must be cat, um, cautious of your movements so as to not make noise.” Petra added.

“Please don’t put it like that Petra. It makes it sound like he is trying to kill us.” Dorothea instructed. Ren wasn’t going to bring that point up because she didn’t know that the lands were different.

“If you try anything like that to Lady Edelgard-” Hubert was cut off by Ren.

“You’ll have my head. I know you say it often.” Ren interrupted. Hubert was growling at Ren for interrupting him until Edelgard stopped him.

“You should have made your presence known, though. People could get the wrong impression of somebody hiding in the shadows of a room full of nobles.” Edelgard noted. Ren slouched down a bit in his chair.

“People can think whatever they want. It is the truth of the person that matters.” Ren sat back relaxed. He could tell that Edelgard was trying to get a read on him, but he kept shifting his mask.

“Alright, now that I know you are here, I will tell you your assignment for today.” Byleth spoke up. Ren internally groaned at the thought of a school assignment. “Since you were not at the mock battle and since I focus more on the physical aspect of teaching, I will be sparring you to test your strength.”

“Another spar with the Professor. I’ll be excited to watch the match. I’m sure there will be a crowd.” Caspar bounced.

“It will be fun to see the outcome of the match. After all, the Professor is undefeated.” Ferdinand stated. Ren smirked at that piece of information and sat up taller.

“I’m always up for a challenge, but that streak of yours breaks today.” He wouldn’t let Edelgard get an accurate read on his character, so he jumped between his masks. He heard the class murmur about his confidence and the complete 180 in his stance. Byleth dismissed the class to get ready for the spar. All Ren needed to do was summon his weapon and flash into his thief outfit.

The news of the spar spread like wildfire across the monastery. There was not a place that you could not hear about it. Most people would get intimidated by the amount of people that would be watching, but for Ren, well, he liked a crowd. Many people had walked up to him and wished him good luck, for he was going to need it. All but Minato and Yu who knew his trademark smirk and that he was a trickster.

Walking into the arena, the crowds cheered, but Ren blocked them out looking for anything to use to his advantage. He saw pillars that he could bounce off of using wind. He could freeze the ground causing her to slip. He also took note of the sun’s position and the shadows it cast. He did not hear the crowd cheer louder when his opponent entered the arena.

Byleth explained the rules to him. No killing and the spar was over after one yielded. He saw her grabbing a training sword before he interrupted. “Sorry, Professor. You’ll have to use metal seeing as there are no training knives.” Byleth then walked over and grabbed a metal sword. Ren smirked seeing one of his plans coming to fruition.

Ren heard many of his classmates in the crowd. Felix was wanting to see how he fared against Byleth, ingrid wanted an honorable fight, which she would not get. Many of the others were placing bets on who would win. Minato and Yu were in the middle of the group, but stayed silent at all of the questions asked towards them.

But he couldn’t think about the crowd any longer as the battle was about to start. He took one last deep breath to prepare himself and then it started. Byleth rushed at him forcing Ren on the defensive. It wasn’t ideal for his plan, but it also would not take away from it.

Ren danced around her blade, parrying when needed, but other times doing flips to avoid the blade. He had heard people in the crowd shout at him to go on the offensive, but there was never an opportunity. What the crowd didn’t notice was the sparks bouncing periodically along his body. Minato smirked once he saw the sparks figuring out his plan.

Byleth overextended once, allowing Ren to start on the offensive. He used his speed and acrobatic abilities to bounce around Byleth, never striking from the same angle twice. He was starting to exhaust himself, but he could see Byleth’s labored breaths as well. The sparks running up his body were starting to get noticed by the crowd. The gasps of what they were and what he was going to use them on getting thrown around the arena. Byleth didn’t seem to notice them, only focusing on his blade and the vital parts of his body.

Arsene informed him that Zio was fully charged and could be used at any time. Ren needed to be in a blade lock for his plan to work, forcing him to strike at an angle that could easily be avoided. Luckfully for him, Byleth was too tired to dodge it, forcing the blade lock. He looked her dead in the eyes, “This is your last surprise!” He yelled out, channeling the electricity through the blade. The electricity claimed up her blade, onto her sword arm. Byleth was forced to drop the sword with her muscles convulsing. Ren then held his blade to her throat and she yielded.

Pulling his blade back, he put his hand on her arm, casting dia and healing it up. He then helped her to her feet and was declared the winner of the spar. Many people were shocked with the ability that Ren used, never thinking to channel magic through their weapons. While beating the undefeated left Ren feeling good, he opened a whole new path to fighting that many had never considered before. To him defeating fate was great, but helping people think was even better.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter!
> 
> I think that the dynamic between Minato and the lions would be tense. Minato knows the dangers of the world and knows not to be foolishly optimistic about the world. His no nonsense attitude towards those topics would make many of the lions angry.
> 
> Yu's dynamic with the golden deer is one of building trust and slowly teaching them the ways of the world. He would build up their trust and then unveil his wisdom onto them.
> 
> Ren will have a very different relationship with the Black Eagles. He sees them as unified, but doesn't know what that unification comes from. Also in a staight spar between Byleth and Ren, I believe that Byleth would win. In this situation, she was not expecting magic to come from Ren and was surprised when it come up.


	4. Secrets and Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The House Leaders and Byleth think about the persona trio and the mysterious surrounding them.

Rumors about the new guys’ past had spread all around the monastery. From them beating the professor in a spar or guessing about their past. Claude typically didn’t mind hearing rumors because there is always a silver of truth in them. Except when all of the rumors contradict each other or have no connection.

Claude was envious of them. He had warned them that speaking their language would get them in trouble, but they still did it. And making guesses about their past based on their language was fruitless because nobody had ever heard of it. If he had even spoken a silver of Almryan, he would have no hope of achieving his dreams.

He also thought that he was good at reading faces, hell, he could even read Teach’s, but these three, he could not read them at all. It seemed at every encounter there was something new about their personality and gestures that was completely different from the last time. In class, Yu was the voice of reason, but when he was with his friends he was completely different.

Walking aimlessly around the monastery, he tried to theorize about their past. Bandits? No then they would have taken the town’s offerings or ransacked it themselves. Mercenaries? Again they would have taken the town’s offering. He couldn’t come up with an occupation that matched their actions. And that wasn’t even mentioning where they got their strength. Nobody in the monastery had been able to best Byleth, yet these three did it consecutively. He had heard Lysithea enough to know that the way they cast spells was not normal, but nobody could place a finger on it.

Lost in his thoughts, he ended up bumping into somebody. He fell down and went to apologize, but he saw a hand. “Thanks for the lift.” Claude took the hand and offered an easy smile. Looking at who helped him up, he saw Ren.

“Of course. Would be good to knock down the heir to Leicester and not help him up.” Ren teased. Claude was trying to pick something out of his face that he could get information out of, but it all seemed sincere.

Claude sighed, “Well thanks, but I’m no normal noble. If you hadn’t helped me up I wouldn’t have minded. After all I ran into you.” Claude was desperate to get any reaction out of the boy, but nothing came of it.

“Well you look like you need to talk about something. Want to talk about it over lunch?” Ren asked. Claude didn’t need to answer, as his stomach did it for him. Claude scratched the back of his head to play it off, but followed Ren to the mess hall.

Sitting down, Claude tried to think of a question that would answer some of his questions. “What were you thinking about?” Ren spoke up, breaking the silence.

“I was thinking about what everyone is right now. Your guys pasts.” Claude remarked.

Ren laughed at the answer. “Well at least you didn’t ask that to my face. So many people have tried to and for how noble they say they are, that is the least noble thing to do.” Claude already had a thought about who he was talking about, but didn’t bring it up.

Delving into his mind for questions, Claude found one, “Why a knife as your weapon? I am sure that there are better weapons than a knife.” Claude thought that it was an interesting choice even when he first saw it. Short range is deadly on a battlefield, so a knife is more of an assassination weapon. But how Ren wields it is akin to a really short sword.

“It was the first weapon that I had ever used. There was a surprise attack and the only weapon I had on me was a knife, so I used it to defend myself.” Ren answered. It wasn’t much for Claude, but it was something about his past that was opened up to him.

“A knife is a rare weapon that not many people wield like you do. How did you learn to wield your knife.” Claude interrogated. It wasn’t his favorite activity to interrogate people for their past, but he knew that he would get nothing if he didn’t ask direct questions.

“Ok Mr. Detective, I learn to wield my knife from instinct. Trial and error, if you will.” Ren teased. Instinct? Claude hated that word because there was no way to predict it. Claude groaned because his answer did make sense. Nobody used a knife quite like he did and if he saw people using swords, he would wield it the same way.

They had both finished eating a while ago and Claude wanted to continue this, but wanted to find out his tactics, goddess forbid he ever had to go against him. “Do you want to play chess? It’s one of my favorites.” Ren nodded and went to the reception hall to play.

Claude and Ren shared a friendly banter over the game as they kept taking each other's pieces. He preferred to play defensively allowing him to react to his opponents moves, but Ren went for plays that made no sense. He had seemingly at random chosen a piece and moved it. It frustrated Claude because he had no idea what to prepare for.

Their friendly banter had stopped as Claude tried to focus more on the game. He was slipping, losing more and more pieces, while taking a few of Ren’s. “You need to focus on the present and not the future, Claude.” Ren advised.

“Why would I want to do that? Chess is a game about considering all of one's options before moving. You have to think into the future to win.” Claude reasoned. He was not about to let somebody tell him how to play this game.

“I say that because you were trying to read my strategy. You got angry because you couldn’t read it and that let you get sloppy.” Ren responded. Looking back over the game, Claude realized Ren was right. He got sloppy with his movements after he realized Ren was moving random pieces. “Checkmate” Ren exclaimed.

Claude looked down at the board, to find out that he had indeed lost. It was his first time in a while that anyone had beaten him at chess. He had forgotten his original purpose of playing, but enjoyed himself nonetheless. “Who’d you learn from?”

“An old friend. He played the same way you did. Reading too far into the future to realize the present.” Ren answered. The tense of the statement and the sad smile on Ren’s face did not miss Claude, but he decided not to bring it up. “This was fun. Want to do it again sometime?”

“Yes. I would like to do this again. I want to figure out a way to beat you.”

“Then it’s settled.” With that both Ren and Claude parted ways.

Dimitri had heard the rumors about the three new boys, but he did not let them affect his perspective of the boys. From what he had seen, they were all powerful and wise. Nobody had defeated the Professor, but they all did by using tactics that caught her off guard. And while some people were still grumbling about that (mainly Ingrid), Dimitri did not mind them fighting that way.

The rumors that spread about them were awful though. Saying that they were assassins, trying to eliminate the church. Or bandits that were going to raid the town at night, but Dimitri couldn’t see them like that. Maybe that is why people called him too trusting. But he would not judge people based on their past after what he was. He would only judge them on how they changed from their past to their present.

He still wanted to search them out for advice. They were some of the smartest people at the monastery in terms of experience, or so it seemed. They always had a real and relevant answer to questions that were asked. Minato argued about everything that Hanneman got from the textbook saying that it wouldn't work on the battlefield. Granted Hanneman called on him because he was sleeping and didn’t read the textbook.

Finding Minato was harder than Dimitri thought. He looked in the library and his room, but did not find him in either. Instead, he found him on a bench, with closed eyes, looking towards the sky. Dimitri would have thought that he was asleep if he didn’t react to his presence. Minato looked towards Dimitri with boredom. “What do you need, Dimitri?” He grunted. That was another thing that he liked about them, they referred to him by name (which upset quite a few people in his house).

“I wanted some advice.” Dimitri answered honestly.

“Why do you want mine? Shouldn’t you ask your friends or somebody that has experience leading.” Dimitri was surprised by his answer. Typically anyone would want to give their advice to a future king.

“I want yours because you seem to have the most real life experience out of anyone. My friends would suck up to me and tell me to stop worrying. That’s why I want your advice.” Dimitri retorted. When he had asked his friends for advice, Felix scoffed at him, Sylvain told him to relax, and Ingrid said that her advice would be lacking.

“Ok. Just know that my advice is different from what most people are looking for. I tend to lack tact when I give advice.” Minato warned. Honestly, that was what Dimitri wanted. Somebody that doesn’t sugarcoat their advice to have good graces with the future king.

“I’m at the monastery now, but I don’t know what to do afterwards. I’m going to be King, yet I have no ideas about what to change. I don’t feel worthy of being…”Dimitri was cut off by Minato.

“Don’t let yourself fall down that spiral of not being worthy.” Minato said with a sharp edge. “Your past defines who you are, but it doesn’t define your worth.” If only you knew who I truly was, Dimitri thought.

“I guess the advice I am looking for is what I should do with my life.” Dimitri exclaimed.

Dimitri noticed that he stopped talking and closed his eyes. He was about to walk away when Minato sighed. “I’m afraid I can’t give you advice on that.” What? “You are looking for an answer to personal questions. My goals differ from yours therefore I could give you ideas, but not advice. And my ideas could vastly differ from your loose concepts of what you want to do.”

“Then what steps should I take to figure out my purpose in life?” Dimitri questioned. His ghosts wanted revenge and he was willing to give his life towards that goal. But if he ended up surviving he had no idea of what to do.

“You already stated it. You need to figure out your answer to life. That purpose, while being broad, can help you find out what is truly important to your life.” Dimitri was about to respond, but Minato put up his hand. “Do not tell me what you think it is right now. Because it will not be true. Think about it, then come back to talk to me. Your young and many people don’t have it figured out by then.” With that Minato yawned and started walking away, leaving Dimitri to think. His one goal since the tragedy was revenge, but what was the point to his life. With that Dimitri went to his room to think.

Edelgard wasn’t sure of what to think about the new kids. On one hand they were very strong and could help her overthrow the church. On the other hand, they seemed set in their ways and would not change. If she could recruit them, she would be able to dismantle Those Who Slither easily, but they would find out about them quickly.

When she found out that they were going to be students, she was frustrated. That crazy witch had put their Professor in the monastery on a whim, now there were three more people they were in the monastery. She knew that if she tried hard enough that she could turn Byleth. She seemed naive about the world, not knowing about the Church or crests. It would be easy to swing her opinions on them towards her side.

The boys seemed more knowledgeable than they let on. It was obvious that they were learning about Fodlan if their time in the library was anything to go off of. But it was more in the way they presented themselves that frustrated Edelgard. She could not get a read on them and that wasn’t including the fact that they beat the Professor and used magic differently. She had sent Hubert out to get information on them, but he could not find any. It was like they just popped into the world.

To add to her sour mood, there was a TWSITD meeting happening. She hated cooperating with those monsters. But she had no other options if she wanted to take down the Church. As soon as the Church was out of her way, it would be their turn to go, she told herself to justify why she sided with them.

Putting on the Flame Emperor armor, she warped to their meeting point. It was just outside of the walls, where patrols didn’t often go. As usual she was one of the last there, with only Solon being later than her. “Sorry I’m late. There were these boys in the library that would not leave. Though they seemed very interested in learning the history of Fodlan.” Solon noted.

“If I am correct, those are the three new students at the academy.” Edelgard added. She did not like giving them information, but she had to in certain situations.

“What is that witch doing!?” Thales wondered. “First she put in that Professor, now she is putting in students. Do you think that they will interfere with the plan?” 

“I’m not sure. All three of them are very strong and don’t need spell theory to cast spells. They can just do it on command without a moment's notice. All three of them also defeated the Professor in lone combat, which were the first times she has lost.” Edelgard noted. She hated giving these monasteries new information, but it was necessary. If she didn’t they would question her loyalty.

“Do you think that they can be turned? Having more power on our side would make it easier to take down them.”

“I don’t believe so. They all seem to be very set in their ways and would not be able to see things from our way.” Edelgard responses. “We also know nothing about them. Any attempt to figure out their past had been pushed away by them. Hubert couldn’t figure anything out by watching them either.” Hubert was getting frustrated with his lack of progress on the matter, which was just a joy for everyone.

“That is true. I have heard them on multiple occasions use a different language, but one that I have never heard before.” Solon commented.

“Then we must keep an eye on them. If there is nothing else to be discussed, this meeting is over.” Thales declared. He warped away, which was quickly followed by Solon. Edelgard then did the same, returning to her room.

Composing herself, she left the room to go have dinner and on the way she ran into Hubert. “How was the meeting?” He matched her step. It was also nice to have Hubert to vent her frustrations to.

“They were curious about Ren, Minato, and Yu. But without enough information, they couldn’t make heads or tails about them.” She followed up.

“I’m sorry that I could not find anything useful about them, Lady Edelgard.” Hubert looked down. Edelgard hated when he looked like this because he looked like a hurt puppy.

“It’s fine Hubert. Afterall nobody really knows about them.” She comforts him. Hubert just nodded and they went into the mess hall, everyone unaware of the meeting that had happened.

Byleth liked the new students a lot. They were strong and they knew their way around a battle if their answers were to be believed. Losing spars to them hurt her pride, but it also reminded her that she wasn’t invincible and that she could be hurt. It was also the fact that on free days they seemed to try and help other students with their academic problems.

The thing that annoyed her was the rumors being spread about their past. She knew all too well what rumors did to someone's reputation and the ones that were spreading would only hurt their reputations. What hurt her even more is that some of her students were among the ones gossiping. In her class, it was mainly Dorothea, but in the Golden Deer it was Lorenz and Hilda. In the Blue Lions House, it was Ingrid and Felix.

Byleth hadn't had the time to talk to any of them, with her preparing for the mission, but they seemed like good people. But when watching them, she noticed that they functioned more like family than friends. She didn’t see them fight at all, but she could sense that they fought with the same bond her and her father fought with. Complete trust of the other.

Watching them talk with the other students is what really interested her. She noticed the way that they seemed to change to the person they were talking to. When talking to Caspar, Ren would become upbeat and almost hold more energy and say things that would help Caspar. With Bernadetta, he would be calm and soft-spoken, which helped their bond grow.

But by far the most interesting thing about them is what Sothis said.  **_“They all seem to have overcome many challenges in their lives. The one with the blue hair seems to hide his true feelings behind a mask of indifference, to the point of making him seem apathetic. It’s almost like he has met death and come out the other side.”_ ** The description didn’t make sense until you watched him closely. Every action he made had a purpose, but he talked with a sense of boredom. When fighting him, he went for aggressive moves that would often put him in the way of death, but pushed through. In a way, that fighting style represented a more aggressive Dimitri that knew his limits.

**_“The silver haired boy has the most fun with life out of the three. He seems to take life in strides allowing him to make the best of each moment. Yet while enjoying life he looks to find the truth behind everything. He knows how to find the truth in a world of lies, which makes him very observant of the world around him.”_ ** She had seen Yu analyze his surroundings. But unlike Minato he moves with little to no purpose all of his actions are genuine and he cares a great deal for people. There is a judgemental look in him, but he covers that up with jokes and being easy going. He was also the person that questioned the texts the most. In her fight with him, he had let her go at him. He only blocked and parried, but once he found an opening he took it and won. He had been analyzing her movements and used that opening to throw her off. It was like watching a more focused Claude that focuses on capitalizing on people’s mistakes immediately.

**_“The one with unkempt, black hair is a mix between the two. He goes with the flow in most circumstances, but when there is a threat he gets very serious. He seems the least trusting of the three and seems to have a rebellious nature.”_ ** Ren was the one that she had interacted with the most. He had two definitive attitudes that seemed to play off each other. In class, he was quiet and also seemed to be deep in thought, trying to avoid everything. In a battle, he was dramatic doing exaggerated movements that would catch the enemy by surprise. He also seemed to be the one least affected by the rumors. He only truly showed that he was a rebel in fights. He would often use underhanded tactics to win, often at the disapproval of his classmates. But when they tried to reprimand him for using those, he shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

Her main question was how did nobody notice them? They were and are very skilled in battle and would make great mercenaries. Even if they were never mercenaries, nobody would be that good at battling without being known. She had wanted to ask them, but every time she saw them helping somebody out.

It was the end of the day and she sighed. She had gotten little to no new information about them and spent her day in a seminar. But those things about her students would have to wait until after the mission next week.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter. Constructive Criticism is welcome

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that I have had for a while, seeing as the three houses seem to match with the persona games. Dimitri has to overcome grief and death, like Persona 3, and the color is blue. Claude wants to find the truth about the world, like Yu, and his color is yellow/gold. Edelgard wants to break free from the control of the powers above humans, like Ren, and her color is black/red.
> 
> This is my first post, so please don't judge it too hard. Comments and constructed criticism is appreciated. Since I am writing this without any sort of plan, expect there to be plot holes. After every couple of chapters I will go back and edit some of the previous ones.
> 
> I will get chapters out when ever I can, but I will try to get one out at least every week.


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